I can relate to sooo many of these things! Some people are really beyond annoying. And I really have empathy for those that work in daycare and boarding settings. I tried that, twice, and honestly don't know how you do it. The whole setting was far too chaotic for me and the dogs' owners were nuts.

My biggest peeve as of this morning is:

"My dog just won't stop pulling! I've tried everything! Do you have something that will work?"
"What kinds of things have you tried so far? We have these no pull harnesses that work really well for most dogs to help you teach them to walk loosely. Would you like to give one a try?"
"No, I tried that, it didn't work. As soon as I try to walk him with his collar instead he goes right back to pulling."

And it conversation goes on and on about all the things that don't work. So I asked them if they made sure they were aware that even with a training tool, you still have to train the desired behaviour and reward the dog when he does what you want. And it's amazing the amount of people who are like "Oh, I never thought it that! Do you really think that would help?".

I also have this other customer who supposedly trained animals for movies and thinks he's an expert on anything dog, and then he comes in and asks me questions and when I give him my answer, he's all "no, that's not right. This food is no good because... this toy is no good because... those collars are bad for dogs because..." etc. He never wants to hear my answer. I'm always wrong. And yet he asks anyway.

Then there are the people that phone me and must be lonely and want to talk for an hour. I'm trying to work! Yeah, my store isn't that busy, but still. I don't really have time to sit on the phone and talk to you about your kitten's adorable meow for an hour. Really?!

And I agree about the people who don't know what food they buy. Seriously? How can you not know? I kind of understand if you just switched foods recently and don't remember, but you've been buying the same food since I started working here and probably longer and you still don't know?

And the people that come in last minute or after close and are all "My poor dog is starving! He ran out of food last night and I just haven't been able to make it in". Who waits for the very last kibble to get more food? You feed the dog every day, you should know how much he has left. Or there are the people who get mad at me when they leave their dog's food to last minute and we happen to be out and their dog "can only eat the one kind!". We obviously try to keep the store stocked, but sometimes things do run out since we aren't big. It's always coming, usually quickly, but they need it NOW. And then there are the people that call right before close and are all "My dog really, really needs food! Can you please stay open for me? I'll be there right away!". I now no longer answer the phone right before close. Then there are people who bang on the door after close and are like "I see you in there! My dog needs something!", meanwhile I've already closed the till, cleaned up and have my jacket on about to walk out the door. And if I know the customer well and like them and this isn't a regular occurence, I'll usually let them in anyway. But I learned not to let most in because they wander around the store literally shopping and it wasn't an emergency at all.

I always open the store early because I get here early and it's expected of me for whatever reason to open early because I'm here, but this one morning one of my crochety old lady customers (she's not nice at all) showed up at 9:30 (we don't open until 10am) while I was in the freezer organizing things and restocking it. I get out, don't look at the door, go to the back storage room for something, come out and open the store at my regular 9:45am. I open the door to welcome her and she gets all mad telling me she has this appointment and that appointment and she's been standing outside for 15 minutes waiting for me to open. She should be happy that I open the store early at all and not yell at me for not being open a half hour early. The store hours are posted. Then she came back and complained to my boss on a day she was working and told her I refused to open the store early that morning and made her wait until 10.

Then there is this other older guy who doesn't even have a dog but comes and buys treats and bones for some reason and gets mad because we don't have the exact thickness of bone he wanted, or we don't carry a certain brand of treats he used to be able to get 5 years ago. And he's rude about it too. Then he comes to the counter, starts talking to me about some products we carry and proceeds to tell me those things aren't good for dogs (I work in a completely natural pet health food store - there is no junk food or treats here) and why. And one day somehow gravel dog runs came up and I said that's what my dogs use and now he thinks I'm a horrible, cruel person. He always just has an opinion about something and it's never a good one.

Then there are the people whose dogs drag them into the store and when they get in they let their dog loose and greet every other person or dog who might be in here and don't listen when I ask them to please control their dog. But their dog is just the friendliest, nicest dog in the world and just loves to make new friends and everybody loves her and also loves to pick out her own treats, so why should she have to stay on a leash? They just don't get it.

I think the worst things have all been covered and I left many out that other people already said, but I bet I could go on an on. I do like my job for the most part. Retail certainly is not my thing at all and I look forward to figuring out a career one day, but I like the store I work for and I like that it's pet related. But omg, some people are super difficult to deal with. And tons of them also like to take all their life's woes out on me like everything is my fault sometimes.

And not related to my current job at all, but I used to house sit for a fair amount of people and some of them still call eventhough I told them I can't anymore and are like "But you're the only one I trust with my dogs! If you can't come then I can't go on my vacation and it's really important!" or something like that. I don't let most of them guilt me into it, but one of them got the better of me and now I have to go stay at her house for two weeks in January, which sucks because I don't drive yet so it's going to take forever to get to and from work from her house and be a hassle. Good thing I like her and her dogs.

"I don't think that's the right one."
"This is the one coming up on your account.... that you've been buying the last 2 years..."
"That bag looks too blue. I thought it was more teal."
"Well, it's the same name and item number as what we have on record so it should be right..."
"Ugh fine, I guess I'll have to get this then."

Gaaaahhhhh.

Oh, this is even better. The woman that came in looking for her dog food. She hadn't been there before, so there was no history to look up. We went through the whole "What does the bag look like?" "What does the kibble look like?" thing. I brought out samples of everything we had and opened them, since she swore she'd "know the kibble when she saw it". She had been shopping at a small locally owned pet store in another town, and I even went as far to call them and ask what brands they carried so we could at least eliminate something. She eventually wanted to OPEN VARIOUS BAGS OF FOOD THAT WERE ON THE SHELF TO MATCH THE KIBBLES. I explained that we could only do that if she was paying for them, and she got all huffy and left.

When I worked at day care (which also did cage-free boarding), we had a 45 minute grace period for owners to come in late (we didn't answer phones, sell anything, or allow people to come in just to look, but since we were cleaning anyway we'd let owners come in to pick up).

If they didn't make it by then, the dog was stuck there until the morning. And they had to pay for the boarding.

__________________
"My favorite color is green, green like newly cut grass. When it comes to green with envy, though, you can stick it up your @ss!" ~ Grammy

Oh, this is even better. The woman that came in looking for her dog food. She hadn't been there before, so there was no history to look up. We went through the whole "What does the bag look like?" "What does the kibble look like?" thing. I brought out samples of everything we had and opened them, since she swore she'd "know the kibble when she saw it". She had been shopping at a small locally owned pet store in another town, and I even went as far to call them and ask what brands they carried so we could at least eliminate something. She eventually wanted to OPEN VARIOUS BAGS OF FOOD THAT WERE ON THE SHELF TO MATCH THE KIBBLES. I explained that we could only do that if she was paying for them, and she got all huffy and left.

Oh dear God.
Yeah, no big deal, we can tear through every bag of food!

That is definitely the point where you should just purchase any other brand of food that looks good. Some people are SO against trying a different type of food, and not because their dog can't have any other food... they're just stubborn!! If you don't remember what you feed or we don't have it in stock and you are 100% out of food, what other choice do you have?

If you don't remember what you feed or we don't have it in stock and you are 100% out of food, what other choice do you have?

One day when I was feeling particular spicy I actually said to a client over this kind of unsolvable dilemma between WANT and POSSIBLE, "Well, if I had that kind of power over time and space I assure you I wouldn't be working here. Now, shall we do A, B, or C?" With a sweet, sweet smile on my face, of course.

Most days what I ACTUALLY want to say is "Well what the F*CK do you want ME to do about it?"

Oh that reminds me! We have a policy that we allow people to return food if their dog doesn't like it, as long as half or so of the food is still there.

We were busy one day and a girl came in with her lab...we found her opening every brand of dog food and seeing if her dog would eat it. And I mean BIG bags of food...she told us she figured she would herself a step by bringing it home since we guaranteed it. And she was so mad that we asked her to stop, she hasn't been back since.

One day when I was feeling particular spicy I actually said to a client over this kind of unsolvable dilemma between WANT and POSSIBLE, "Well, if I had that kind of power over time and space I assure you I wouldn't be working here. Now, shall we do A, B, or C?" With a sweet, sweet smile on my face, of course.

Most days what I ACTUALLY want to say is "Well what the F*CK do you want ME to do about it?"

LOL love it! It was really ridiculous over the summer when Diamond had all those recalls. I'm sorry, next time I will try really hard not to contaminate any food with salmonella. My bad!

Quote:

Only AFTER a dog lunges for your jugular does the owner say, "Oh, yes, he can be testy sometimes."

Oh dear God.
Yeah, no big deal, we can tear through every bag of food!

That is definitely the point where you should just purchase any other brand of food that looks good. Some people are SO against trying a different type of food, and not because their dog can't have any other food... they're just stubborn!! If you don't remember what you feed or we don't have it in stock and you are 100% out of food, what other choice do you have?

I just don't understand why people are so reluctant to try new things. I understand if your dog has an extremely sensitive stomach, or has food allergies, or whatever. But so many people are so set on feeding their dog X Brand and X Formula over and over and over again, and then when we're out of it or it goes into backorder it is the ultimate end of the world. I get not wanting to mess with a good thing, but I'm sure most dogs would do fine with a bit of a rotation.

I always stress rotation when I recommend food brands (even rotating formulas within the brand) - aside from that it's good for them, and provides variety in the diet...it's helpful to have them used to eating different things if you need to make an emergency switch for whatever reason.